Golden Goose

It's a beautiful day in the village...

... or at least it was until the horrible Eaglerin showed up. That's why you've been dispatched to the small village of Idlehome, a lovely and quaint locale that is apparently being terrorized. According to them, the eaglerin has stolen hats, trapped someone in their well, stolen all their clothess and tossed them in the well, and worst of all, drank all the alcohol that Farmer Bokamp had painstakingly been distilling.

Anyway, the aventurer's guild has dispatched the lot of you to try to locate this meddlesome eaglerin before he honks again! Strikes again.

You're just now arriving at the /very/ quiet township.

Orenthal had introduced himself to the others at somepoint in our trek here. Walking along with a staff, he seems the picture of a fellow taking his ease. He'll look around the quiet township and suggest, "Maybe this disturbance has grown bored and moved on?"

Victor strides next to Orenthal. "Actually it would be better if we saw him and were able to dissuade him from further mischief. Then we could be certain the matter had been resolved." He scans the skies and the rooftop for unusually large feathered shapes.

"Goodness I hope not!" said an awfully pretentious and refined voice to the person whom had said the eaglerin had absconded. That was the Honourable and Esteemed Professor Emeritus Basil Theodore Cunningsworth, an old man dressed remarkably well who for all intents and purposes looked like he was merely out for a sojourn. Which, to be fair, he was. He'd fallen in with this group of ruffians, youths, and other assumptions Basil had made, and was merely tailing them to where they were going because it was certainly more interesting than looking at books on how to counteract negative energy spells. BOOOOORING. He looked to his shoulder, saw nothing, harrumphed quietly, and disregarded said nothing. Habits. "An eaglerin!" Yes, Basil, let's distract from your madness a moment. "Why of course I haven't seen one of those since the Myrrish Terrors," what the hell are the Myrrish Terrors? "When one of similar stature harrassed a merchant boy in the square. I say, I have never seen pants evaporate so rapidly, haw haw haw! But the poor lad, he was frightfully and rightfully mortified! On his journey..." he, he just keeps on rambling like that.

Toha, similarly scans the skyline as they walk, "How many times can you dunk someone in a well 'fore it gets old?" She's fairly jovial and quick to introduce herself to the group, though now, out in the field, as it were, she's more quiet. She has a recurved metal contrivance that essentially looks like a bow in her hand, an arrow in the other, just in case.

Someone sticks their head out of one of the village buildings and hisses at you, gesturing quickly. "This way!" It's an older man, perhaps fifty, wearing a straw hat.

Victor breaks into a run after the elder, cape streaming behind him. He chants a few words in an eldritch language as he goes and there is a brief shimmer as a layer of magical force settles over him.

GAME: Victor refreshes spells.

Accompanying this group is a woman who walks in a way that suggests the capacity for immense violence. Celeste has come with this group, even though hunting mischievous troublemakers isn't usually her speed; this half-orc generally prefers problems she can solve by killing them. Well... maybe there's wiggle-room here. "If he doesn't come peacefully," she growls to nobody in particular, "I will chop off both his arms and legs." Yes, that shoud solve the problem in a non-lethal manner. He won't get up to any more nonsense after that."

GAME: Victor casts Mage Armor. Caster Level: 4 DC: 16

Orenthal gives Basil a puzzled look, Celeste a worried one, and he nods to Victor. "More importantly, if he's run away, I imagine we won't get paid." Then the old man speaks, and he ohs! He'll rush quietly towards where the fellow pointed.

"Oh, does he have tea?" Basil T. Cunningsworth was truly underestimating the amount of danger they were all in, right now. What's new? "I thought we were going on a mere jaunt," you literally just started following these people for no discernable reason, "and forgot to bring a kettle, see." Priorities. With the implied promise of tea, Basil followed, noting assorted arcane literature being dictated, wondered what was going on with all this rot, and then in complete defiance of any sort of wisdom failed to cast his own protective spells. Good work, Basil.

"..."

The man in the straw hat strokes his moustache after he fionishes letting you all in.

"You must be from the guild. Thank the gods! You have to get that eaglerin. He stole my hat! Who does that?! We can never be sure when his next rampage will start." He glances out the window of his home, "but now that you're here, maybe he'll fly off to better pastures for his mischief." he lets out a sigh. He does, in fact, pour tea. He has tea for you. He's a polite older man, after all.

Orenthal assures the man, "Oh yes, we're definitely from the Guild." He eyes the man's straw hat and weighs the claim that his hat was stolen. "Is that your backup hat, then? But anyhow, where -is- he now? It was quiet when we arrived."

Celeste gazes at the offering, and perks an eyebrow. "I don't drink tea," she states. Well, what do you drink, Celeste? Not Tea. "Yes, we are from the guild. We will find the trouble-maker and dismember him until he elects to behave himself. If he is wise he will decide to give up his life of crime while he still has all of his organs and extremities."

Toha was about to inquire about the man's headgear when Orenthal beats her to it. Instead, as she doesn't drink tea (it promotes rust), she takes up a position by the window and serripitously peeks out now and then to see if she can catch sigh of the offending birdman.

There were two ways in which one could receive acclaim from Basil T. Cunningsworth: complain about the pointless, and have tea handy. This man had both, and therefore Basil regarded him as a comrade, an ally, a friend, in this world dominated by young upstarts with more power than sense. "Why thank you, my good man, thank you!" enthused Basil tremendously, looking about the room titling his upper body to and fro looking for... "is there somewhere to sit? Come, friend, events have happened in the time before our meeting, and we must /discuss/ them." Eaglerin? What eaglerin?

Victor also takes up a position by a window so that he can peer out for any sign of the bird man. "Just to be clear," he calls without quite looking at the villager, "He has not actually injured anyone?"

"This is my OTHER hat," he intones. "I like hats. He's... not actually injured someone, but he stole my aunt's spectacles! She was holding them in her hand to clean them, looked away, and he came out of nowhere and stole them and ran off! WHO DOES THAT?! WHO DOES THAT I ASK YOU?!" He's clearly agitated about it, even as he directs you towards the comfy chairs that he has in his sitting area. His house isn't large, but he's clearly entertained guests.

"He's terrifying everyone. It's only going to escalate from here!"

Orenthal has to think about this for a moment. On the scale of horrible, where a nice dinner is zero and ten is Sandy being annoyed with you, this is maybe a 1. Maybe. "Stealing hats and glasses isn't a capital offense," he says aloud, eying Celeste. "But we will see if we can get him to desist. If we can find him." He says that last bit looking at the fellow, in case he can help with that.

"WHO DOES THAT, I SAY!" erupted Basil in agreement. "I say indeed! The youths these days!" Had... had he misinterpreted this eaglerin as some teenage upstart? Probably. "What you do, my good friend," Basil said, having already settled into the most comfortable looking chair in the building with a cup of tea, as was his due, "is you bring him up to his mother and you say, 'This boy, here, has been a nuisance! A miscreant!' Possibly even a /knave/, if you deem him thus, and then you turn him over to her for appropriate punishment. And if that doesn't work, a large Fireball spell aught to do the trick." With a harrumph, he dabbed his teabag, removed it, placed it on the saucer, and sipped quietly.

Celeste takes a spot in the corner, and pulls her bastard sword out of its scabbard, with a long, slow shhhhhhhnnnikt. She glances up at the conversation carrying on around her, and grunts disapprovingly; a whetstone is produced and she applies herself to the task of sharpening her weapon. She continues this in silence for a time, before clearning her throat and deigning to speak up. "The only question that really matters, right now," she declares, eyeing Orenthal in return, "Is where his is *right now*."

Victor says, "Is it possible he bears some ill will towards the village. Is it built upon the site of an ancient burial ground perhaps? Or farming has expanded into his hunting grounds?" He pauses and fixes the elder with a look. "Has he ever spoken?"

"He just makes some ungodly sound like, an unearthly wail the likes of which no man should be forced to hear. It's..."

There is a sound from outside. A distinct call.

It sounds a lot like...

"HINK!!!"

"GIVE THAT BACK, YOU...!"

It's coming from outside.

Toha's attention is snagged by the HINK and protests of ownership and the golem twists away from the window to bolt out the door. Let's see what this is all about, eh?

Celeste catapults out of her seat, tucking the whetstone away and charging straight for the door -- it better open easily, because a half-orc gladiatrix is going through. "FACE JUSTICE, MISCHIEF-DOER!" she snarls, emerging with sword and shield to hand, ready to mete out a swift punishment. Providing, of course, that the Egalrin is on the ground, which might be asking a little too much.

"HINK!"

"Is this your miscreant?" Basil said, looking doorward and sipping tea. "My word, he needs to see a physician, his throat sounds like a dire toad is in it! What do y-" he had turned to look at his shoulder again, and noticing nothing was there, let out a quiet "oh." This was of course followed by a boisterous "WELL," as he shotgunned the rest of the hot tea (Basil's tongue has been trained for decades in the lost art of shotgunning hot tea) and placed the cup, saucer, and spoon on the little table. "You have been a gracious host, and I shall be back here post-abduction to continue our complaint about youths."

Orenthal will slip outside, now, to see what may be seen. He will try to stay out of sight if he can, no reason to draw attention as he scans the area.

"That sounds like an excellent idea, good sir, so long as you STOP THAT BLASTED BIRD MAN PERSON THING," he points at the door.

Heading outside, you see the distant form of an eaglerin running down the street. When he hears Celeste's voice, he cranes his long neck back over his shoulder, bird-calls at you, and then darts further down the village road.

He's definitely running at a... break neck pace.

Toha spots the Eaglerin and gives chase, though, for some reason, she hasn't just up and shot at him yet. Instead, "STOP RIGHT THERE!" she roars.

Weapons in hand, Celeste roars wordlessly amd charges after the Egalrin. "SURRENDER NOW AND YOU WON'T BE HARMED!" She yells after him as she sprints, "AT LEAST NOT MUCH! STOP RUNNING!" Well, the half-orc certainly means business it sounds like. Someone *did* tell her this was supposed to be non-lethal, right? Orenthal did, right? Yes? Yes.

Orenthal will dash after the quarry. Not much he can do, otherwise. Particularly if Celeste gets to the fellow first!

Basil T. Cunningsworth, far too old now to be engaging in such athletic activities as a foot pursuit, owing to his knees and their unfortunate state, poked his head out the door, looked left and right as though he were going to be crushed by impending traffic (unlikely, as his compatriots had charged off to their doom) and stepped outside. "Aaaaah, country living! I adore the smells of privies in the morning!" Was he being serious? Why wasn't he chasing the eaglerin?! He put his hands in his pockets and started to wander down a street off a different angle to where everyone had disappeared. From one pocket he withdrew string and a dab of wool, one of many things he kept in there, and with a click of his fingers said "Obidai medua valkat!" A shimmer was felt behind him, an invisible force of aid. "Now then, to catch dinner!"

GAME: Basil casts Unseen Servant. Caster Level: 2 DC: 15

GAME: Celeste rolls athletics: (6)+9: 15

Celeste is chasing the hat bandit, and she's pissed. "GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE THIEF!" she snarls, weapons to hand as she charges for all she's worth. ...Well, it would be better if she didn't have to avoid the poop in the road, but choosing the direct route always has downsides, afterall. So she just runs as hard as she can, and makes it around the bed. "YOU WILL BE SORRY WHEN I CATCH YOU!!"

GAME: Toha rolls wisdom: (16)+1: 17

Decision making has more to work with whilst she isn't riding her Whitefire, and so, rather than bull on through the street, Toha ducks down one of the side streets like the fellow talking to himself. She keeps hold of her bow and arrow, but her hands are too busy pumping the air in her run to try and nock.

GAME: Victor casts Levitate. Caster Level: 4 DC: 17

Victor chants an arcane phrase. As soon as the last syllable is out of his mouth he rises alongside the wall of a building, cape swaying gently. He reaches just above the rooftop, scanning from the higher vantage point for the alleged Egalrin.

GAME: Orenthal rolls athletics: (19)+9: 28

Orenthal looks around as to where the prey is going. He takes a running leap, jumps off a windowsill, and up onto the roof, hauling himself up with a pair of convenient handholds. He takes a look around, then dashes on.

Inbetween the buildings go some of you. There, you find that this indeed a quaint little village, but there's more than enough stuff between the buildings, combined with a lack of foresight, to make it a bit more difficult. Still, you've gained some ground in doing so, just in time for Basil and Toha to have a good read on where the Eaglerin is along the street on the village street he's running on. The bird-man throws a hat on his head and he seems to be carrying a burlap sack full of something over one shoulder, leaving a trail of undergarments falling behind him. He stole someone's daily washing.

HONK HONK.

Navigating the slopes of the rooftops is going to be reacherous. They're slick from fall rains but it definitely saves you stime if you can do it fast enough. The running eaglerin glances over his shoulder behind him at Celeste, HONKS loudly at her, and proceeds to jump up atop a well and then off the other side, darting into a barn, where upon you hear the ruckus and commotion of many an animal. A flood of chickens spill out into the street.

GAME: Celeste rolls athletics: (15)+9: 24

GAME: Celeste rolls intimidate: (19)+11: 30

GAME: Whirlpoopin' rolls 1d20+7: (13)+7: 20

Celeste charges pell-mell after the Egalrin, snarling and spitting as she goes, still with arms to hand. "GET BACK HERE YOU INGRATE!" she snarls, as she rounds a corner and sees... chickens, and distressed animals. Well, they're in the way, and she doesn't have time for a chicken roundup, so she just barrels straight at them. "GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" she howls as she rushes onwards. One might imagine her head bursting into flame or something with that yell. It sure scares the chickens; they scatter in all directions. As the half-orc thunders into the barn she keeps up the yell, and the rumpus of animals inside goes much quieter, as they all stuff themselves as far back as they can get into their stalls, as a truely horrifying predator comes amongst their midst.

GAME: Victor rolls athletics: (12)+9: 21

Victor pulls himself onto the roof in sort of a reverse-vault. As soon as his feet touch the rooftop he's running. He takes one final leap off of the roof and then drops down with his cape streaming behind him. Flexing his legs as he lands, he lets himself drop into a crouch with his cape settling around him. The he straightens and moves for the barn door.

"...and when he came to he found that his skeleton was missing, haw haw h- oh my!" Basil T. Cunningsworth, deep in conversation with his shoulder, was availed by the sight of BIG ANGRY SCREAMING to continue the discussion about a former grad student. Distracted by the sight of rippling muscles and terrifying thighs, he contemplated his mortality then remembered he had something he had to do. "Right-o, then. James, bear with me a moment."

Perhaps Basil was going senile.

Breakfast generators infested his path and, unwilling to wait for them to move out of the way, Basil decided to expedite the process. Because, after all, one must never come between Basil and tea. Tea? We weren't chasing tea here, old man. "Never you mind," Basil said to his shoulder, again, and pointed towards the feed sacks. "Loosen!" he cried.

The unseen servant, an invisible flick of magic, darted forward to one of the feed sacks. A drawstring was loosened and the sack toppled, attracing all the egg dispensers towards the source of nourishment. "Right-o," he said, quietly and triumphantly, marching past them towards his quarry.

GAME: Orenthal rolls athletics: (1)+9: 10 (EPIC FAIL)

Orenthal is in a hurry to get across the street to head off our quarry, but he really should have given a bit more mind to his handhold, because suddely a piece of roof he's holding comes off in his hand, and then he's moving earthward holding a handful of broken shingle. SPLASH He lands in a water trough, mercifully, so the main damage is to his pride. And his clothes are pretty qrecked.

So, the good news.

The barn that several of you have gone into has a back door that is wide open, and the eaglerin in question has let loose the donkeys within.

Oh god. The donkeys are starting to march out of the barn and down the ramp casually, braying and enjoying life as you mere mortals try to slip through them. Out the back of the barn and into the fields dives the eaglerin, letting out another jeering HONK as he bypasses a stranger, whose necklace he quickly snatches off while he's distracted and runs right along. OH NO.

In any case, you have donkeys in the way. And a door to squeeze through. An an overgrown grazing field that he's trying to disappear into.

Edinaz yells "Hey!" as the necklace gets snatched off of his neck. "Look out!" He points, then takes off after the honker. "That'll explode!"

GAME: Celeste rolls athletics: (9)+9: 18

GAME: Celeste rolls intimidate: (11)+11: 22

GAME: Whirlpoopin' rolls 1d20+7: (3)+7: 10

The roaring half-orc apparently has one plan, and she's sticking to it. She sucks in a deep breath and "GRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSS!!" her way through the donkies, scaring them silly -- and scaring them out of the way. She boots a barn door out of the way without even slowing down, and then she's out, back in the streets and after her quarry. "STOP NOW OR I'LL RIP YOUR ARMS OFF AND MAKE YOU EAT THEM!!" she screams. (She's totally not serious, right? She's just trying to scare the guy, right? Right?)

"Rita Re- balls!" cried out Basil, trying to get closer to the charging roaring and let's be perfectly honest TERRIFYING big woman. "Rita Repu- it's no good, Bruce," did his imaginary friend's name change? "I can't lock on! I have to stop!" So he did just that, skidding to a halt, waving an iron-dusted hand in the charging woman's direction, and crying out, "RITA REPULSA!"

No good. The spell couldn't get a lock on something moving, especially so fast. It wriggled in Basil's mind, complaining, and giving him a headache only tea could quash.

"Well, bugger all this for a lark," Basil complained, glancing at his uninhabited shoulder once again. Standing at the other end of the barn, past the donkeys, looking across the field, he tucked his hands in his pockets to watch. He was breathing... awfully heavily. "Oh goodness if my heart bursts like the Dean's that one time, that'd be rather unfortunate! However, his WAS brought about by an experiment in artificed organs, and such things..." and he was rambling to no one again. Great!

GAME: Toha rolls athletics: (15)+6: 21

Toha bursts across the street and runs into the damn barn and nearly slides into a donkey. Soon, the donkeys are joined by the worst of all: goats.

GAME: Victor rolls athletics: (9)+9: 18

Victor makes a mental note that the party should perhaps take different routes in the future - assuming they get the chance. But for now they appear to have been funneled through the barn. He rushes into the pocket of donkey-free space created by Celeste's passage.

GAME: Orenthal rolls athletics: (1)+9: 10 (EPIC FAIL)

Orenthal pulls his unhappy backside up, standing in the trough, and he's just stepping out when a ballistic goat, running from one of the scary Celeste, runs into him at full speed, taking him right in the ... upper thigh area. He falls back into the water with a wheeze.

GAME: Edinaz rolls athletics: (10)+5: 15

GAME: Edinaz rolls intimidate: (15)+8: 23

Edinaz goes running after the other oruch-y person, yelling and glowering. "Stop! Now! Before we get stern with you!" He keeps a-lumbering away after her.

The bird doesn't seem to care that the necklace could 'explode'. Mayube it didn't hear? Either way, it doesn't seem to care. He's busy running away, sticking out his long tone as he cranes his neck backwards to give Edinaz the raspberry. He nearly trips over several roots from a tree, one of the baubles from the necklace dislodging and rolling.. roling... clinking against the trunk of one.

IT doesn't shatter.

...yet...

GAME: Celeste rolls cmb: (2)+10: 12

Celeste doesn't really bother yelling any more, the animals have got the idea; she just glares at them like she'll dismember them if they irritate her, and they get the idea. Moments later, she catches up with the Egalrin; she throws her sword, the blade tumbling end over end to stick in a tree right in the Egalrin's way. That's enough to deter his path that the half-orc gladiatrix catches up to him; she drops her shield and with a mighty below body-checks him into the tree. With one hand she grabs the side of his head and holds him against the tree, while her other hand siezes hold of the wrist he's holding the necklace with. "GIVE UP NOW!" she screams into his ear, "IT'LL HURT A LOT LESS I PROMISE!"

...the tree is slammed into. The necklace is stabilized, but you know, the violent collision that got control of the eaglerin jostles that one little orb on the other side of the door. It rolls down the slight incline from the tree and bounces once and hits a tiny rock.

THWOOM!

The field is now on fire.

So is the tree.

So is Celeste. The eaglerin, of course, somehow escapes unscathed.

Orenthal will catch up eventually. He's walking funny and soaked to the skin. "Please tell me you got him?" he asks of the burning Celeste.

Celeste is suddenly on fire. The half-orc doesn't seem like she's in a great hurry to put it out; instead she just continues to hold the Egalrin, and snarls in his ear. "Not. A. Good. Idea." She looks for a moment like she's about to punch him right in the head; but apparently the high likelyhood that she'd punch is brain right out of his head makes her reconsider.

He isn't even DOING anything except honking in pain at this point and trying to get loose. HONK HONK.

Still, you're able to arrest the misvhevious eaglerin, at this point, and you're goiung to wind up spending the rest of the night with a trussed up unnamed bird man and a field on fire that you now have to put out.